Better Paper Project offers a free webinar on sustainable publishing in the 21st century

Our friends at Better Paper Project will run on July 11, 1:00pm a free webinar on sustainable publishing. It's a 1-hour webinar and free - magazine publishers interested in getting greener are welcome to check it out. Here are some more details on the webinar:

You are invited to join the Green America Better Paper Project for this event, in recognition of your magazine’s efforts at improving paper consumption practices. This webinar will provide participants with information on existing tools and best practices to forward paper procurement policies and provide a snap shot and update on global forest hotspots, including the Great Bear Rainforest, Canada’s Boreal Forest and the rainforests of Indonesia.

Staff from Canopy will also join the Green America Better Paper Project to help answer questions on how to engage your suppliers and mills to promote lasting solutions that provide certainty both in terms of supply of environmental paper for your company, as well as ecological protection of our global forests.

For more details on Better Paper Project visit their website - http://betterpaper.ning.com/. You can register to the webinar at https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/showReg?udc=1uz0rjo4wszn

Yours,

Raz @ecolibris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Green Books Campaign: Canopy is supporting the campaign and presenting their work with the book industry

We're happy to begin the Green Books Campaign's day with a guest post from our friends at Canopy. Based in Canada, Canopy is one of the most important forces pushing the book industry towards greater sustainability in the last decade and we're proud to have it as one of the supporters of the campaign (just like the Green Press Initiative, which we presented here couple of days ago).

Best known for our work to green the Harry Potter series internationally with the support of author J.K. Rowling, Canopy works to protect the world’s forests, species and climate by leveraging market forces to help publishers, printers and paper producers adopt environmental policies and practices that ensure conservation on the ground. Eco-Libris’ Green Books campaign bolsters this movement to include wider consumer engagement. Given that 60-80% of a publisher’s environmental footprint is attributable to the papers it prints its books on, we are excited to work with the Eco-Libris Green Books Campaign to help book lovers save the world’s forests by choosing books that are printed on environmental papers.

Canopy works with more than 700 publishers and printers, including Random House, Scholastic and Lonely Planet, and literary giants such as Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood, to reduce dramatically the impact book production has on our fragile planet. By harnessing the purchasing influence of major publishers and printers, Canopy has been able to broker large-scale conservation agreements such as the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement and the world’s largest conservation initiative, the new Boreal Forest Agreement. It is through such major agreements that real conservation progress is made.

Such progress is thanks in no small part to the remarkable changes we’ve seen in the past decade since starting our work with book publishers. The marketplace has progressed from no environmental book-grade papers being commercially available in North America in 2000, to millions of books now being printed on environmental papers. As a book lover, that’s good news!

Recognizing the critical role that book lovers and retailers play in the industry, Canopy also works with market leaders such Indigo Books & Music to help them not only green their own business practices, but also foster environmental leadership within the publishing industry. Our joint work with Indigo also enables readers to make informed purchasing decisions by transparently providing information about a book’s environmental qualities online and at store kiosks.

So how can you tell if a book is printed on environmental paper? Consumers should look for one of the following:

• An eco-audit at the back of a book, listing exactly what kind of paper each part of the book (pages, cover) contains
• The Ancient Forest Friendly label
• Statements that the book is printed on 100% Post Consumer Recycled paper, or on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper

This information may be included in a number of places in the book, including the back jacket, inside jacket, or the copyright page, directly after the title page.

As the final stop in the supply chain – the demand – readers are of course essential to the success of both individual titles and the overall industry. Know that you can be the tail that wags the dog in a greener direction. Vote with your wallet: purchase books that are printed on environmental papers. Your support of publishers and retailers who are taking environmental leadership and campaigns such as this helps increase demand for responsibly sourced books. And that helps position organizations like Canopy as stronger advocates for the world’s forests, species, and climate.

We want to thank again Canopy for their support of the campaign and assistance in getting the word out! You can find more information about Canopy's work, as well as resources on the impacts of the book industry and available eco-friendly paper options at http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbooksresources.asp

The Campaign's page is www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign2010.asp .You can also follow the campaign on Facebook and twitter.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting green reading!

The number of eco-friendly papers has more than doubled in the past 18 months!

Wonderful news from Canopy! This great environmental non-profit organization that works to improve the environmental performance of paper and wood companies, reported earlier this month that the number of eco-friendly papers available in North America has more than doubled from 97 to 228 in the past 18 months!

According to Canopy (and thanks also to our friends at the Green Press Initiative for bringing this release to our attention), "the sharp increase in eco-paper options is the result of large paper buyers demanding more papers with ecological attributes, a growing trend despite recent troubles in the North American paper industry and global economy."

This is a very interesting trend and its importance is even greater, given the troubled economy and its influence on many paper buyers. Is it possible that more publishers see further business opportunities in purchasing greener papers? Possibly. Is it also a matter of pricing? Definitely. I believe that as we'll see premiums going down, it will be easier to present eco paper options as a business opportunity, or a win-win solution.

If you want to learn more about the eco paper options available, please go to Canopy's comprehensive Ecopaper database. There you'll find more than 350 of the best eco papers available in the North American marketplace.

Best,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Canopy launched an online survey to help developing agricultural residue paper alternatives

On August 2008 we reported here on an interesting trial of the Canadian National Geographic, whose June 2008 issue was printed using 20% wheat straw. This was an attempt to see how pure agricultural residue - wheat straw can replace trees as a source of paper.

As reported last month by Neva Murtha on Better Paper Project, this trial was successful and showed that non-wood papers pass the technical and quality requirements of the North American market. Murtha adds that during last year’s trial was a significant level of interest by large paper consumers in agricultural residue paper alternatives such as the Wheat Sheet.

Canopy (back then known as Markets Initiative) who was one of the forces behind that effort (the others were the Canadian Geographic magazine, Ottawa printer Dollco and the Alberta Research Council) is trying to figure out now for the next steps and has launched an online survey to gather information that will help "shape the next steps in creating a future for a North American agricultural residue pulp and paper infrastructure"

So if you're a publisher, printer, paper merchant/distributor, pulp/paper manufacturer or represents relevant parties please take a couple of minutes of your time and fill it in and contribute your part in making publishing more sustainable. You can find the survey here.

For more information on the Wheat Sheet, please visit:
http://www.canopyplanet.org/index.php?page=the-wheat-sheet

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!